iMovie 10 - Many Interface Changes

Apple has made some great changes to iMovieR 10 that will make working on your videos even easier than before. The most obvious change is the new workspace, which has been simplified to contain very few buttons and panes.

When you open iMovie with no open project, we find ourselves viewing one of two workspaces. The default view is the Library workspace but we can switch to the Theater interface via the toggle buttons at the top of the workspace.

The Library interface contains the Libraries pane in the left sidebar and the Viewer and Browser panes. The Libraries pane is your door way to all your projects and assets. Your options are to view the contents in the iPhoto Library, All Events, All Projects and iMovie Library. The Browser pane will display the contents selected in the Libraries pane. For example, selecting the iPhoto Library will display all your photos in iPhotoR, listed by events, in the Browser pane. The other three options, All Events, All Projects and iMovie Library, work the same. Selecting an item in the Browser pane will display the contents for that event in the Viewer pane, with a semi transparent overlay listing information such as the number of photos or videos for that event. The Browser pane also has a search option.

Once you open or start a new iMovie project, the interface changes giving you two more panes. The Project pane appears at the bottom of the interface by default and contains the Timeline for your project. The Content Library appears under the Libraries pane in the sidebar and contains the assets that you can add to your clips such as transitions, titles, maps, backgrounds and sound effects. You can also add assets from iTunes and GarageBandR. You will add assets to your project by dragging them onto the Timeline.

At the top of the workspace we have a few icon buttons. The Import button opens an Import dialog box which displays the contents on your computer and external storage drives. The Create button gives you the option to start a new iMovie movie or Trailer. Each option will open a second window listing previews of movie themes and trailer templates. The Share button will give you several options for sharing your project via email, iTunesR, YouTubeR, FacebookR, VimeoR and CNN iReportR. You can also send your project to the iMovie Theater or save it to your desktop.

Of course, you will want to make adjustments to your assets when you add them to your project. Above the Viewer pane are two icon buttons for this purpose. The Enhance button will add basic color and contrast corrections. To undo this, simply click the Enhance button again. The Adjust button will display several tool icons for color balance, color correction, cropping, stabilization, volume, noise reduction and equalizer, video and audio effects and clip information. Selecting one of these icons will display a set of corresponding adjustment tools directly under the row of icons.